Ben Garner speaks: “I am very proud,” says the Swindon manager. “They are one of the top three teams in world football. Our defensive shape was excellent but I was a bit disappointed with some mistakes on the ball in the first half. They cost us unfortunately but we dug in. It has been a great cup run, a great night for the supporters but now we turn to league football.”
On his team’s determination to play the ball out from the back: “We will keep working on that, keep improving,” he says. “It was a fantastic occasion but our priority is League Two and getting promotion.”
Rodolfo Borrell speaks: “We started really well, on the front foot,” City’s stand-in manager tells ITV. “There were moments maybe towards the end of the first half we were not as good as usual and allowed some counter attacks but overall it was a good game against good opponents.”
Asked about Cole Palmer’sexcellent performance, Borrell says:“Great quality. Everyone has been able to see it. He is a great player, still developing quite a lot but there is a lot of talent there. Hopefully very soon he can play more games with us like Phil Foden a couple of years ago.”
Asked if he had been in contact with Pep Guardiola during the game, Borrell says he spoke to his boss at half-time.
FA Cup: Despite a Covid outbreak in the camp, almost half a billion pounds’ worth of talent came out on top against a Swindon Town team 72 places below them in the pyramid. Ben Fisher reports from the County Ground.
Manchester City’s man of the match speaks to ITV Sport. “We started well,” he says. “It is a tough place to come. They had the fans behind them. I enjoyed the game. There is always that bit of pressure coming into the team being young but you have to go out there and enjoy it.”
A quick recap: Bernardo Silva opened the scoring for City, poking home a Cole Palmer cross from a couple of yards out, before Gabriel Jesus doubled their lead after a calamitous attempt by Swindon to play the ball out from the back.
After the break, City went three up following Ilkay Gundogan’s splendid free-kick, only to be thwarted from 12 yards when Lewis Ward saved Gabriel Jesus’s penalty. Harry McKirdy prompted scenes of delirium in the stands when he pulled a goal back for City but it was the Premier League leaders who had the last word when the outstanding Cole Palmer rifled home from a tight angle.
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeeep! It’s all over at the County Ground, where Manchester City have won at a canter but their League Two hosts can leave the field with their heads held high.
Far better teams than them have and will continue to be beaten by a lot more when pitted against Manchester City this season, although they will rue the mistakes which gifted their opponents their first two goals.
Consolation: Kyle Walker of Manchester City walks through a red smoke bomb thrown onto the pitch after Harry McKirdy of Swindon Town scores a goal to make the score 1-3 . Photograph: Kieran McManus/REX/Shutterstock
89 min: Lewis Ward saves brilliantly from Rodri, getting a fingertip to a rising long range effort that was destined for the top corner and touching the ball on to the bar.
87 min:Manchester City substitutions: Nathan Ake and Cole Palmer make way for Luke Mbete-Tatu and Kayky. Swindon substitution: Mohammad Dabre on for Harry McKirdy.
86 min: There’s a break in play as Swindon goalscorer Harry McKirdy receives treatment for cramp. He looks in terrible shape and is helped off the pitch barely able to walk but sporting a big goofy grin on his face. Good for him.
84 min: Manchester City: Romeo Lavia on for Ilkay Gundogan. Swindon Town sub substitution: Harry Parsons on for Tyreece Simpson. Our two substitutes have a combined age of 37.
GOAL! Swindon Town 1-4 Manchester City (Palmer 82)
City score again. A Bernardo Silva shot is deflected into the path of Cole Palmer, who sends a splendid shot into the far top corner off the post from a narrow angle. Lewis Ward got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out.
79 min:Swindon win a free-kick wide on the left for a Kyle Walker foul that earns the full-back a booking. Ellis Iandolo curls the ball into the City box, where an unmarked Romoney Critchlow heads over the bar.
GOAL! Swindon Town 1-3 Manchester City (McKirdy 78)
Swindon score! They win the ball in midfield, Jonny Williams advances and plays a great ball wide into the path of McKirdy. His first touch is sublime and with his second, he buries the ball past Zack Steffen with a low shot from a narrow angle.
Swindon Town’s striker Harry McKirdy shoots past Manchester City’s goalkeeper Zack Steffen to score . Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images
Ruben Dias disappointed as flares are seen on the pitch after Swindon Town’s Harry McKirdy scored their first goal Photograph: David Klein/Reuters
75 min: City have another corner, which Cole Palmer plays short. Swindon try to clear their lines but Harry McKirdy gets pinned back on his own bvyline before being robbed of possession. Palmer plays a weighted passd into Ilkay Gundogan, whose shot from a tight angle is saved by the feet of Ward.
72 min: Ilkay Gundongan spins on the edge of the Swindon box and sends a low shot towards the far corner. Lewis Ward gets down to save well, putting the ball out for a corner. It’s only half-cleared and Cole Palmer jinks this way and that on the left side of the penalty area before pulling the ball back to James McAtee. He shoots over the bar from the edge of the penalty area.
66 min: Tyresse Simpson tries to barge his way past two defenders through the City penalty area, goes to ground and appeals for a penalty. He doesn’t get one and a replay suggests the referee was correct to keep his whistle out of his mouth.
64 min: Rodri is booked for a wild challenge on Kaine Kesler-Hayden. The clearly rehearsed free-kick is chipped down the inside right and Dion Conroy has his cross put out for a corner by Nathan Ake. City clear.
61 min: Lewis Ward dives low to his right to save the Brazilian’s weak effort. A pause in his run-up meant he couldn’t get as much power as he’d have liked into the shot.
Miss: Gabriel Jesus of Manchester City takes a penalty which is saved . Photograph: Lynne Cameron - Manchester City/Manchester City FC/Getty Images
61 min: Bernardo Silva is fouled by Jordan Lyden on the edge of the Swindon penalty area. Was it inside or outside? It’s hard to say but referee Darren England points to the spot.
GOAL! Swindon Town 0-3 Manchester City (Gundogan 59)
58 min: De Bruyne is OK and City have a free-kick. Ilkay Gundogan catches the poorly positioned defensive wall out, curling the ball around the outside of it and into the bottom corner. That is an excellent, opportunistic strike but the defending was criminal.
Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City scores . Photograph: Kieran McManus/REX/Shutterstock
56 min: Kevin De Bruyne goes to ground, hurt under a challenge from Ellis Iandolo as the duo contested a high hospital pass towards De Bruyne from Joao Cancelo. That looked painful.
54 min: Cole Palmer cuts in from the right and has a shot deflected narrowly wide of the angle of upright and cross-bar. A corner for City which Dion Conroy heads clear.
52 min: Lewis Ward tries to play out from the back again, has the ball played back his way and proceeds to lump it long. In the ITV commentary box, Ally McCoist is on co-comms and utterly baffled by the tactic. “Why not just play it long and wide in the first place?”
48 min: Under pressure from Ben Gladwin, Kyle Walker tries a shot from distance but he’s off balance and sends his effort very high and very wide of the Swindon goal.
46 min: City play it out from the back with Nathan Ake charging forward before laying the ball off to Bernardo Silva. Their advance continues, the ball pinging around the Swindon penalty area before being cleared.
Peep! Darren England blows for half-time, with Swindon trailing by two goals. Bernardo Silva opened the scoring for the visitors, tapping in from close range after excellent work down the right from Cole Palmer. Gabriel Jesus added their second, his fine finish coming after Swindon shot themselves in the foot trying to play the ball out of from the back. The home side have created a couple of half-chances but have yet to pose a serious threat.
Swindon’s Harry McKirdy . Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
44 min: From a City corner, the ball finds its way to Joao Cancelo a few yards outside the Swindon penalty area. With a minimum of backlift, he sends a shot towards the top corner and it hits the side-netting. I thought that was in and I suspect the Swindon fans behind the goal did too. It was some strike!
Swindon Town’s English goalkeeper Lewis Ward dives as a shot from Manchester City’s Portuguese defender Joao Cancelo goes narrowly wide. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images
42 min: Manchester City attack down the right flank, with good contributions from Kyle Walker and Cole Palmer. Swindon hoof clear and Harry McKirdy finds himself bearing down on the City penalty area with one defender in front of him and three more hot on his heels. Joao Cancelo bundles him off the ball to avert the danger.
39 min: Jordan Lydon receives the ball wide on the right and squares the ball across the face of the Manchester City goal. With McKirdy loitering with intent at the back post, Kyle Walker puts the ball out for a corner. Nothing comes from the set piece.
38 min: Relentless City pressure with Swindon struggling to get the ball out of their own half. A high velocity backpass from Reed under pressure from Cole Palmer is hacked clear by Lewis Ward, who is having a predictably busy night.
36 min: Bernardo Silva makes a clever run between defenders to latch on to a ball from deep and brings a smart save out of Lewis Ward from a tight angle. Offside.
33 min:Manchester City corner. Kevin De Bruyne’s delivery is met by an unmarked Rodri, who plants his downward header into the ground on the edge of the six-yard box. Swindon clear.
30 min: On the touchline, Swindon boss Ben Garner threw his arms in the air in frustration as the second goal went in, having instructed his goalkeeper Lewis Ward to go long with his kickout. Ward wanted to but one of his teammates knew better and I think it was eventually Louis Reed who lost the ball just outside the Swindon area.
City double their lead! Gabriel Jesus slots a low diagonal shot into the far corner after running on to a weighted Kevin De Bruyne pass. That was a gift from Swindon, who got caught trying to play the ball out from the back again.
Gift for Jesus: Gabriel Jesus makes Swindon Town pay for their mistake. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images
Gabriel Jesus celebrates after scoring their team’s second goal . Photograph: Lynne Cameron - Manchester City/Manchester City FC/Getty Images
27 min: Nathan Ake advances towards the halfway line before clipping a long diagonal pass towards Cole Palmer. He goes to ground under a challenge and the ball goes out for a goal-kick.
24 min: Steffen gets another touch, reacting quickly to come off his line and intercept a Tyreece Simpson pass towards Harry McKirdy. In the ensuing scramble down by the corner flag, Joao Cancelo is penalised for a foul on Simpson. The subsequent free-kick is cleared.
